Few reporters have known golf's giants as well or remembered them as eloquently as Laney, a writer on the celebrated sports staff of the New York Herald Tribune. Unlike most sports histories, which focus on big tournaments and battles among leading players, Laney's centerpiece is always the stars' personalities: how they react to pressure, how they conduct themselves when they are behind or ahead, how they prepare tar championships, what their life is like off the course, and how they see the world and each other.